When a television input signal is lost, most televisions will display a noisy bright picture on the cathode ray tube and will broadcast noise over the television speaker(s). Also, the design of most television audio demodulators will cause them to produce a noise signal, with an amplitude that is substantially greater than the voltage amplitude of the normal audio signal produced when a valid television input signal is present. This design characteristic of the demodulators and amplifiers causes the production of annoying video pictures and audio broadcasts when a television signal is lost. A similar phenomenon occurs when a television is receiving its input signal from a video cassette recorder (VCR). When the end of a recorded program on the VCR tape is reached, the VCR will produce a video signal based on the blank tape. Again, because of the video amplifier design, the video signal produced by the VCR based on blank tape will have an amplitude substantially greater than the amplitude of the video signal under normally operating conditions when a recorded television program is present on the tape. This condition will produce an annoying picture of noise on the television.